gumshoe

English

WOTD – 16 August 2010

Gumshoe (sneaker or rubber overshoe).

Etymology

gum +‎ shoe

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌm.ʃuː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

gumshoe (plural gumshoes)

1. A sneaker or rubber overshoe. [from mid 19th c.]
2. (slang, Canada, US) A detective. [from early 20th c.]

   Synonyms: detective, dick, private eye, sleuth

   • 1920, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 20, in The Big-Town Round-Up:

     "Who's this gumshoe guy from the bush league tailin' us?"

Translations

sneaker or rubber overshoe

• Armenian: կրկնակոշիկ (hy) (krknakošik)
• Bulgarian: гуменка f (gumenka), галош (bg) m (galoš)
• Finnish: kumitossu (sneaker), kalossi (fi) (rubber overshoe)
• Romanian: galoș (ro) m
• Russian: гало́ша (ru) (galóša)
• Swedish: galosch (sv) c

slang: a detective

• Armenian: խուզարկու (hy) (xuzarku)
• Bengali: টিকটিকি (bn) (ṭikṭiki)
• Bulgarian: детектив m (detektiv)
• Finnish: kyttä (fi), dekkari (fi)
• German: Schnüffler (de) m
• Romanian: detectiv (ro) m
• Russian: детекти́в (ru) (detektív)
• Spanish: sabueso (es) m
• Swedish: deckare (sv) c

Verb

gumshoe (third-person singular simple present gumshoes, present participle gumshoeing, simple past and past participle gumshoed)

1. (slang) To act as a detective.
   • 1933, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture, Hearings‎^[1], page 25:

     The next thing they did was to send a man sent down there from Baltimore and he spent a good deal of time gumshoeing around in that county trying to get another individual put in as secretary-treasurer.

   • 1988 September 23, Achy Obejas, “Calendar”, in Chicago Reader:

     But these days, more and more women are gumshoeing through the pages of murder mysteries.

Translations

to act as a detective

• German: schnüffeln (de)

See also

• galoshes

Anagrams

• hugsome